On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Stout, Wayne wrote:
I have had a couple older machines, <200mhz that I didn't touch in a
while, and the Mandrake gui installer would fail at apparently random
points, and when running,the thing would also die randomly. I found that
pulling the RAM, and re-inserting it didn't help, so I was desparate,
pulled all the cards, then pulled the CPU itself. That seemed to fix
it. Apparently, the CPU must have been loose, and maybe when the thing
got hot, it lost the connection or something. So, I must recommend pulling
everything apart and putting it back together. Linux doesn't usually die
from things other than bad mem or a screwy CPU.
> Ok, I'm a wee bit confused here. My Linux box has started hanging and
> rebooting for no apparent reason. ( I know there's a reason, and I'm pretty
> sure it's my fault. :) )
>
> Here's the scenario. I've been running Mandrake 7.1 on my desktop for a few
> week, everything was going along nicely. I installed it on my laptop and
> gave ReiserFS a shot. Worked like a dream. So, I decided to re-install and
> use Reiser instead of ext2 on my desktop.
>
> After doing this, everything seemed ok for about half an hour or so, then in
> the middle of an Xboing game, the computer rebooted automagically. Struck me
> as odd, but the box came up just fine. (I really like how a ReiserFS box
> comes back after a crash, btw) Logged back in and started another game of
> Xboing. (I can't help it, I like this game) Just like before, the box
> rebooted. My first thought was that the game was somehow causing the system
> to reboot. (I know, I've spent too much time providing support for MS
> products) So, when the box comes back up, I don't start a game, I just let
> it sit while I do something else in the room. Yep, it rebooted again.
>
> As a test, I powered the computer off, and left it off for the rest of the
> evening. The next day, I boot back into Linux, start X and dial up to my
> ISP. We tool along for a while, longer than 30 minutes, then the box hangs
> completely. No alt-fkeys here, it took a hard boot to come back. I try again
> a couple more times, not dialing in, but having various programs going, and
> get another hang and another reboot.
>
> Now I'm thinking I have some flaky hardware combination that doesn't like
> Reiser, so I do another complete re-install and put everything back to ext2.
> Unfortunately, the problem still exists. Doesn't seem to be tied to any
> particular program, nor does it have a definate time before it flakes, it
> will hang or reboot seemingly at will.
>
> Hadware specifics:
> Cyrix 6x86 PR200
> 64 meg ram (72 pin SIMMS)
> 13 gig Maxtor hard drive: 2 Windows partitions (total approx 6 gig), /,
> /usr/local, and /home (approx 2 gig each)+ 250 swap linux partitions
> Trident 9685(?) PCI video card
>
> X 3.3.6 running SVGA server
> Running default MDK kernel
>
> The only thing I haven't tried is resetting my BIOS settings. I had tried to
> add an old 512 meg hard drive (only under Windows) to move some large files
> home from work. The drive never would work, and I removed it from the pc.
>
> I'm not at the computer, so I can't give you the log files right at the
> moment, but I can get them pretty easily.
>
> Anyone have any ideas? I've even used Tom's rtbt floppy to delete the linux
> partitions completely, then try inistalling again.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
>
> Wayne
>
--
Regards,
Ellick Chan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Aug 16
